The Kurds needed help to shake off the yoke, but now they want to chart their own lives. As one Kurd said to me in perfect English, "I was born free. I live free. I will die free." They have made good these words to Saddam's former henchmen.

Kurdish enthusiasm for self-determination has a kind of contagion for our soldiers. The Kurdish and American characters mix readily, as is made clear by the Tennessee National Guardsmen, who are based in territory where many Kurds live. Yet there is more between the Tennesseans and the Kurds than mere polite respect; the relationship resonates with warmth and genuine regard. In contrast, relations with Arab Iraqis are often better characterized as negotiations, often with the modifier "grinding."

Meetings with Iraqi Arabs sometimes seem more like talking with the French. We are not enemies. But, generally speaking, there is no real personal connection. At best, our collective personalities just don't seem to "click." Yet by recognizing the sovereignty and inevitability of each other, we manage to cooperate toward our common interests, while not going to war when we disagree. But with the Kurds, like the Poles or the Brits, there is an easy and audible click. We have mutual goals, mutual enemies, and, also importantly, we actually like each other.